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CADDOLINA 

A STORY OF THE 
CADDO TRIBE 



V 



By 

William McCarty Peck 



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COPYRIGHTED. 1917 
BY WILLIAM MCCARTY PECK 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 



)C!.A-:;?28J)2 



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iHE HISTORY of the Indian tribes is 
enriched by many well known 

TmtQ facts; but those times, especially 
^^ in the Southwest, have been spar- 
ingly treated by works of romance. 
This would be a sufficient excuse 
for the following story, if one were needed. If I 
should apologize for giving it in poetical form, I 
would say that I first Ma'ote it in prose, and I have 
written five hundred pages of prose for each page 
of verse that I have attempted to write. I have 
gone to the muses, not from them, in njy efforts to 
find literary recreation. In the field of the imagi- 
nation it will hardly be denied that poetry is often 
superior to prose. Henry Hallam has given the 
decadence of poetry as one of the causes for the 
condition of the Middle Ages. 

The slaughter of the Caddo tribe was related to 
me years ago by a Confederate officer while we were 
hunting in the old Indian Territory. Pointing to a 
little mountain near which we were tenting on the 
occasion, he said: "There on that bluff the Caddo 
tribe was slaughtered in a battle that was forced 
upon them by the Comanches." He had heard the 
details years before from an aged Indian, and re- 
lated the story to me. It made a deep impression 
upon my mind. The scene of the heroic defense 
was interesting. At the western end of a curved 
eleyation, covered as it was at the time with varie- 
gated leaves and wild flowers, and smiling in the 
autumn sunlight, the little mountain lay like a hor- 
izontal rainbow before us. The picture is as fair in 
my memory today as it was then. 



P REF A C E 

The Caddo are believed to have belonged to 
the Hassinai tribe, one branch of which, the Tahas, 
gave the name to Texas. The Caddo were a tribe 
of peace, but they sometimes suffered for the sins 
of bad tribes, although they rarely, if ever, had any 
trouble with the white people, except when they 
were misunderstood. 

The traditions of the Caddo have been pre- 
served by Prof. Geo. A. Dorsey, and published by 
the Carnegie Institution at Washington. One of 
these traditions, "The Girl who Married the Evening 
Star," suggested the theme for Chapter 2 of this 
story. 

The Caddo were divided into two Nations, one 
occupying Western Kansas and Nebraska; but the 
early home of the Southern Caddo was on lower 
Red River in North Louisiana, and adjoining por- 
tions of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. They met 
the Spanish explorers as early as 1540, and through- 
out their history were friendly toward the white 
people. Their early habitations were conical grass 
lodges, and they were devoted to agricultural life, 
their prosperity and peaceful nature, so long as they 
were let alone, being proverbial. It may justly be 
said that there was never a time when they could 
be called a savage people. 

I am indebted to Mr. Joseph Leonard, a Caddo 
Indian, for translations, and to Mr. C. V. Stenche- 
sum, U. S. Indian Agent at Fort Sill, for courtesies, 
after I had concluded that the Caddo language was 
one of the lost Indian arts. 



CADDOLINA 



The Caddo tribe, 'neath Southern skies, 

Had never welcomed war; 
For peace was ever dear to them, — 

They loved their peaceful star; 
And centuries of peaceful life 

Had made them strong and free. 
The turbid river flowing paid 

Its tribute to the sea. 
Primeval forests everywhere 

Resounded with a song; 
Through aisles of pines and tangled oaks 

The light played all day long, 
And nature's music mingled with the air 

The song of songs to sing; 
The human soul delights to hear 

The song of life forever ring. 
Beyond the forests, prairies spread 

In rolling grandeur far; 
Their greatest harvests long unsown 

Now rich as gold mines are. 
Throughout the land, the earth and sky 

Seemed ever quaint as new; 
Each day brought forth some new delight, 

Each night in wonder grew. 



CAD DO LINA 

II. 

Primeval time beheld a world 
Far different from that unfurled 
Before our eyes in grandeur now ; 
Omnipotence to whom we bow 
Created sun, moon, stars and earth. 
At His command they had their birth. 
And later came the race of man, 
According to the Maker's plan, 
EndoAved we know with Heaven's love 
To guide them to the land above. 
Before the sunlight had been born 
To fill the East with Heaven's morn, 
And chase the darkness from the West, 
That all the land might ihen be blest. 
In time when they in numbers grew 
And many objects did pursue, 
The people chose their best man chief 
Who ruled the tribe and brought no grief; 
For his commands were just, and all 
Obeying, there was ne'er a fall 
Until at last the chief desired 
A council called, and he required 
That all the people promptly meet; 
The council did this call repeat, 
Pronounced to them the fatal word 
"Remove/' and never more was heard 
The word remain. A rolling stone 
Henceforth was better known 
To represent the hapless tribes. 
Their ceaseless wandering describes. 
A westward movement then began — 
'Tv/as in the blood, the fate of man. 
The western range in grandeur rose ; 



CADDOLINA 

That land the tribe in council chose. 
The people sought a home out there, 
The newest land, where frigid air 
Pressed down the rugged mountain side, 
And where the western ocean tide, 
The Southern sea so long a dream, 
Perhaps no broader than a stream, 
Appeared in all its grandeur free, 
The greatest body of the sea. 



III. 



A maiden fair once loved a star. 

Because no other near or far 

Could win her love, and so she said 

No earthly suitor would she wed. 

By day and night she loved to roam; 

She tired oi family, friends and home. 

And watched the stars whose twinkling light 

The heavens fill throughout the night. 

The Evening Star enchained her gaze ; 

She dreaming dwelt in fond amaze. 

At length she prayed that brilliant star 

Might be her beau and come from far; 

And lo, the star came very near. 

Alas! Her soul was filled with fear; 

An aged man the star appeared, 

Unfit for love or peace she feared. 

She watched him long; she read his face; 

He wanted every manly grace. 

And said, "You wished to be my wife. 

So now your wish comes true; my life. 

My home, riy light is yours; be true; 

For all the graces wait on you." 



CAD DO LIN A 

She longed to flee ; her heart grew cold ; 

Her soul abhorred her lord so old. 

"Nay nay," said he, "you shall not go; 

The die is cast, you wished it so." 

'Twas thus the groom unstarlike stood 

Before his bride so fair and good, 

He said : ' ' Your beauty wins a star. 

But fate the prize will hold and mar." 

She saw too late a prison held 

Her fast. Her mate she now beheld 

An uneelestiai monster was, 

A star endowed with nature's flaws. 

He took her on a mountain high 

That seemed to reach the far blue sky, 

And placed her on the topmost rock 

Beyond the need of chain or lock. 

Or any other vain design. 

"The world is yours, but you are mine," 

He said. "You are my queen of love 

Beneath the stars, but high above 

The earthly lot you've known below," 

He added; then departing, left her so. 

A thrill of terror filled her soul. 

Her grief was far beyond control ; 

But death was welcome, for 'twould end 

Her fatal love nought else could mend. 

One chance remained, for circling round 

Awee, an eagle, scorned the ground. 

No other life was in her sight — 

Her sole companion near the height, 

And yet kind fate now made amends, 

The eagle, not her tyrant sends. 

His aery held by one so fair 

At first disturbed the chief of air, 

And then strange pity pierced the bird; 



CADDO LIN A 

For soon he circled near, and heard 

Her grief expressed in unknown prayer ; 

The eagle perched with vacant stare. 

She saw his talons hard as steel — 

I Low great the strength his legs reveal — 

Beneath his wings outspread on high, 

And earthward ready soon to fly. 

His legs brought hope, she seized them both ; 

Her only hope she dared not loath. 

Her flight was like a shooting star; 

The vale to her, though dimly far, 

Became the object of her flight; 

The eagle bore her from the height. 

Did ever maiden fly like this. 

From grim despair to fields of bliss? 

The flight of joy athwart the air, 

The pilot eagle's golden stair; 

The ride for life brought freedom's boon, 

Return to earth before life's noon; 

'Twas fate reversed, and death outdone; 

'Twas love revenged, the victory won. 



CADDOLINA 



IV. 



In Caddoland the feast of maize — 
The plant that all the people praise — 
Was held in autumn's golden days, (1) 

The fruitage of the fields. 
The harvest, nature's golden boon, 
The beauty of the harvest moon, 
The ripened grain of autumn's noon 

God's bounty ever yields. 

In spring the flowers ever new. 

So rich and rare in every hue 

To which the rainbow lends no clue, 

The hand of nature shields. 
The winter with its frost and snow, 
The killing blasts that rudely blow 
And wither plant life here below 

Its mighty power wields. 

Surpassing all the works of art. 
Appealing to the human heart, 
Whose secret nature won't impart, 

Or earth would match the sky. 
The wings that give the eagle flight, 
The dew drops melting in the light, 
With heaven's wonders all in sight 

To charm the eager eye. 



CADDOLINA ii 

October, second summer time, 

In this our favored Southern clime. 

The month of gold, the month sublime, 

Because its beauty quaint, 
Its Indian Summer, famed and fair, 
The hazy magic of the autumn air. 
With golden colors everywhere, 

The frost chief's fingers paint. 

The leaves that autumn paints with tints 

Of which art gives us only hints, 

In letters which the frost-pen prints 

On pages quaint and fair. 
Perfection of the human hand, 
Whose art will ever more expand. 
Is reached when true to nature planned, 

The wizard touch of care. 

In Flowerland they loved to dwell. 
Where beauty haunted vale and dell, 
The glory of the land to tell, 

The people's fortune wheel. 
The song-birds' chosen Paradise, 
Dame Nature's music free of price, 
In autumn also could suffice. 

Its mystery reveal. 

To halt the Southward pigeon flights (2) 
That came across the Northern heights, 
The rarest of the winged sights — 

A billion in the throng; 
Whose rise like distant thunder seemed 
To wake the echoes in a land that dreamed, 
Where nature's wonders were redeemed 

By heaven's gift of song. 



CADDOLINA 

Thus sleepless nature labored on 
To work the wonders of the dawn 
In peaceful days with darkness gone, 

And beauty everywhere. 
The w^orld was young and music free 
Throughout the land, from sea to sea, 
A feast of nature's minstrelsy 

Forever in the air. 



Before that time reports were spread, 
Mysterious as from the dead, 
That pale-faced men divinely bred 

Had landed on the soil. 
Who spoke in unknown tongues and rode 
Strange steeds with glossy mane that flowed, 
The gift that nature's hand bestowed 

On willing beasts of toil. 

At length De Leon came in sight — (3) 
Ambitious, heartless, blind to right ; 
The fount of youth both day and night 

He sought in Western isles. 
A man of iron with nerves of steel, 
Whose heartless deeds might well reveal 
His heart of steel. A bigot's zeal 

The noblest soul defiles. 



CADDOLINA 13 

The wilderness in regal state 

He pierced, and led his band to fate 

In search of fortune all too late, 

Or find his youth regained. 
The first to reach the Flowery land, 
An arrow shot by savage hand 
Struck down the leader of the band, 

His object unattained. 

De Vaca now passed through the lands, (4) 
And left his impress on the sands. 
Enslaved by rude or warlike bands 

His way was long delayed ; 
Yet on and on he later pressed; 
His course was often lost or guessed, 
But onward to the golden west 

He journeyed undismayed. 

De Soto next sought greater fame 
And fortune, and his sword and name 
Around him brought with kindred aim 

Six hundred gallant men 
Who lived for fortune and renown, 
Those mail-clad men whose very frown 
Had kept the people poor and down — 

God gives us Now for Then. 

Those heartless men, those pious tools, 

For God alone the savage fools 

They vowed to teach in sacred schools. 

Yet made them abject slaves. 
Throughout the wild and boundless waste 
The sword and lash made cruel haste 
Till retribution came and chased 

Them back or to their graves. 



14 CAD DO LINA 

De Soto, stern, had drawn his sword 

Upon the blinded savage horde ; 

With lash he coaxed; with sword implored, 

Yet claimed he came from G-od. 
The red men quick received the new, 
At once believed their masters true. 
At length their doubts rebellious grew — 

They mocked the pious fraud. 

The Mississippi was his prize, 

But this he did not realize. 

The treasured golden merchandise 

He had forever lost. 
Heroic man of will, of steel, 
To whom the Inca did appeal, 
Pizarro's baseness did reveal, 

The Inca's life it cost. 

The mighty river grandeur lent — 
Became his tomb and monument; 
The hero dying in his tent, 

Death nerved his lofty soul. 
But ere in death at last he slept 
An Indian girl beside him wept. 
Her vigil still at midnight kept 

In grief beyond control. (5) 

La Salle, a great heroic soul. 
Then sought the Mississippi's goal; 
An empire for his king he stole — 

The trusting tribes betrayed; 
And yet his day adjudged him right; 
His day was darker than our night, 
But brought us to a grander light — 

His glory ne'er will fade. (6) 



CADDOLINA 15 

One-half the world today must mourn 
Because by world war fields are torn, 
Because her sons to death are borne 

In numbers all unknown. 
How vain the boast we're better now — 
Have turned the sword into the plow; 
We mock the Maker when we bow 

And say, "How good we've grown." 

"We may be good at making arms 
To speed along the world's alarms, 
For ducats adding to the storms 

That fill the world with woe. 
Our opportunity we mock, 
Our hearts for lucre turn to rock. 
The mangled millions vainly knock 

For peace, receive a blow. (7) 

The war lord brings our people war 

Across the sea so dark and far ; 

Our guns must answer 'neath the star 

That should have brought us peace. 
To arms we cry for honor's sake, 
To arms we go, position take. 
In world war deeds our record make 

For peace that war may cease. 

Let none desert the flag, nor turn 
And basely fly, for mem'ry's urn 
Is warmed by deeds that ever burn 

Within the breasts of men. 
On land and sea fair liberty. 
Thy flag — our flag, forever free — 
Where'er thy sacred cause may be, 

Forever wave. Amen ! 



i6 CAD DO LINA 

Our country calls, let us respond, 

For patriotism is our bond — 

Our Union, honor, strength — beyond 

Ask not for reasons why; 
The flag, the emblem of the free, 
And banner of our liberty 
That waves for all on land or sea, 

For thee we live or die. 



VI. 



The advent of his pale-faced foes. 

That came with prayers to end with blows, 

"Was not the worst of Indian woes 

That never will be told. 
The thirst for blood is nature's bribe. 
And age-long wars of tribe with tribe 
Nor pen nor brush will e'er describe, 

Will ne'er again unfold. 

But now the hills so peaceful seem, 
The bloody hunting grounds a dream. 
Like Chickamauga's peaceful stream 

That bears a tragic name. 
For long the land with blood was rife 
Before the white man brought his strife 
And arts that challenged Indian life 

To deeds of tragic fame. 



CADDO L IN A 17 

'Twas proof of nature 's direful games ; 
The tribal wars with blood-bought names 
Outliving even savage aims 

And deeds so far amiss. 
Time was when every hill and dale, 
Each landscape smiling in the vale, 
Was battle-shrined, a crimson tale 

Whose malice seemed to hiss. 

A story told in accents bold, 
More lasting than the love of gold, 
A love so young and yet so old — 

The story never dies. 
A world of wrong those deeds supplied 
Though long ago their mem'ry died, 
The words remain electrified 

And live in mute surprise. 

They tell of people born to weep 
Before they went to final sleep ; 
The painted rock, the lover's leap, 

Where silence shields romance. 
Behold the bluff where valor long 
Withstood assaults by numbers strong, 
Against the rude and bloody throng, 

Against the grim advance. 

Opposing bands met blows with blows, 
While here and there great mounds arose, 
Unnamed, untold in verse or prose — 

Those monuments of earth — 
Creations made bj^ human hands 
Expressing dreams of vanished bands 
And adding glory to the lands — 

Those dreams of noble birth. (8) 



CADDOLINA 

Their silence pleads a peaceful aim, 
For war is but a wretched game, 
Save in defense and honor's name. 

For then the right's reserved. 
For other wars are false and vain. 
The slaughter pens of hill and plain 
Where heaven views a million slain 

Whose death was undeserved. 

For rage of battle, lust of wars. 
The prompt resort of bloody Mars 
And Gothic Thor, the exemplars 

Of Europe's war-bought fame, 
Where men in battle ranks are pressed — 
Dire proof that peace is yet the best 
For East no less than for the West 

In heaven's frowning name. 

May peace be blest by all the world 
And wars black banners all be furled, 
The war-lords everywhere be hurled 

In grim despair and rage, 
To weep for seas of human gore 
Their sins have cost; a million more 
Will not appease ; alas a corps 

Counts one in this our age. 

But better things must come at last 
When all this thirst for blood is past, 
When rage for battle is outclassed 

By peaceful aims not dreams. 
A causeless w^ar is never right, 
It cannot bear the searching light 
That seeks the depths of causeless might 

Beneath which hope still beams. 



CADDO L IN A 19 



VII. 

In far off days the Caddo tribe, 
"Whose virtues I would fain describe, 
Was great because nor threat nor bribe — 

Nor even pomp of war — 
Could turn their hearts away from peace, 
A boon that ever did increase. 
Though wars of others ne'er might cease — 

The Caddos' peaceful star. 

'Twas strange indeed that they alone 

No seed of strife had ever sown, 

Of all the nations war had never known — ■ 

That curse e 'er passed them by. 
No doubt the God of love had blessed 
With peace endowed beyond the rest. 
This tribe, when others in the West, 

Beneath the sundown sky, 

He cursed with love of cruel war, 
Whose nature it must ever mar; 
For true it was a peaceful star 

With welcoming surpj^se 
Had shone for them, and far or near 
They ne'er had shed a war-cursed tear; 
In all their peaceful world no fear 

Of war did e'er arise. 



CAD DO LI N A 

No battle blows, no mortal strife — 
Though round them seeming ever rife—' 
Had come to mar their peaceful life 

Unused to battle cry, 
The cry to womanhood a curse, 
For time but made her fate the worse, 
Though sinless she was evil's nurse, 

For others' sins to die. 

In every clime beneath the sun 
Her prayer was e'er a peaceful one. 
For men might fight or men might run, 

Her wrongs went unredressed; 
For her there seemed no bugle call. 
For woman's lot was worst of all, 
She suffered on without a fall. 

And smiled although oppressed. 

The Caddos' land was free from vice; 
For honest deeds he knew no price; 
He knew that honor would suffice. 

And gave his service free. 
He lived the life that nature planned. 
And roamed the plains by breezes fanned, 
A peaceful though a fearless band, 

From mountain to the sea. 

His fires of friendship lit the hills, 
And music lingered in the rills 
Where memory dear lends its thrills 

Each live-long sunny day. 
The beauty of the thrilling dawn. 
The rosy light when night is gone, 
The stars by day go marching on 

Behind the light's display. 



CADDO LIN A 21 

They're merged in day from hour to hour, 
'Tis heaven on earth, the sunlight power, 
The trail of light, the fiery tower, 

Earth's moving picture show. 
A chariot race across the sky, 
The midway of the sun on high, 
The waves of light that pass us by, 

A Paradise below. 

The grandeur of the world at noon, 
The fulness of the sunlight's boon, 
So far beyond the fairest moon, 

The glory of the day. 
The march goes on from morn to night, 
Procession of the waves of light, 
Enchanting every mortal sight, 

The smile of God at play. 

Across redeeming fields of joy 
Beyond the hills, beyond alloy. 
Where waves of light on fields deploy 

In beauty bending far, 
As if the elements had woven rays 
In many golden sunlit ways, 
A cloth of gold from golden days 

That night will never mar. 

A day, a little kingdom of its own, 

A world of joy or sorrow sown 

To bloom again, perchance unknown; 

If joy, 'tis God's own boon; 
If sorrow, it is Satan's curse, 
And low 'ring clouds but make it worse 
Before the stars can reimburse 

The absence of the moon. 



22 CAD DO LINA 

At last the welcome Golden Gate, 
That shames the frown of envious fate, 
The Sundown Skies, the Sunset State, 

And station of the sun; 
In flaming robes of beauty dressed, 
The golden globe sinks in the West, 
The western world iiow goes to rest — 

The day its course has run. 



YIII. 

The children of the boundless plain, 
Alike familiar with the frost and rain, 
Who viewed the distant mountain chain, 

Enshrined in heaven's blue. 
As bordering their earthly home 
Where evil nevermore might come, 
A Paradise in which to roam, 
Their mission to pursue. 

Their garden where a little toil, 
Hedged in with flowers, beauty's foil. 
Produced a harvest from the soil; 

The fields of nodding maize, 
Where none had ever made dispute. 
Where nature played her sweetest lute. 
And God had lavished golden fruit. 

For which they gave Him praise. 



CADDOLINA 23 

From year to year, from age to age, 
They read the stars like written page, 
The hosts of God's own equipage, 

While in the smiling vale 
Grew flowers challenging the stars, 
Those magic gems, sweet avatars 
Of glory, from the planet Mars 

To orbs so dimly pale. 

Those scintillating globes of fire 
That fill the soul with love's desire, 
A holy flame that wont expire 

But teach us constancy. 
Was this an Eden in the West 
Whose border was the mountain crest, 
The Paradise of children blest, 

A nation by the sea? 

Was this where God had planted joy 
Beyond the power that could destroy 
Beneath the sun ; or grim decoy 

To trick the child-like mind? 
A place all bordered round with death 
In guise of mercy's Shibboleth, 
A pang for ev'ry human breath, 

The curse of humankind? 

Indeed misfortune lies in wait, 
To come so soon, remain so late, 
To do the worst decrees of fate, 

Augmenting ev'ry curse. 
Until at last the die is cast. 
For human nature bends at last. 
And breaks like oak before the blast ; 

Thus we our ills rehearse. 



24 CAD DO LIN A 

My heart goes back to happy days, 
Our souls respond in kindred praise, 
And joy returns in many ways 

To recompense our life. 
Ah, auld lang syne, 'tis ever thine 
To touch the soul, and even mine, 
And ours, whenever we'd resign 

A burden grim and rife. 



IX. 

Before the cup of sorrow came. 
As if the light burst into flame. 
There came the thrill of greater fame 

That seemed to point the way; 
For Paradise were bleak indeed, 
And everyone would dwell in need 
If love were banished thence by greed, 

For love will win the day. 

The Caddo chief was brave and true 
While happiness about him grew ; 
A daughter's love around him threw 

The shield of joy, the joy 
Of love born in a faithful soul, 
The highest height, the dearest goal. 
The love that pays the loving toll 

That evil can't destroy. 



CAD DO LIN A 25 

Her innocence was virtue's prize; 
Her artless beauty charmed all eyes, 
And yet she reigned no queen of sighs. 

Her father's rule was just, 
Kaday indeed, the chief of peace, 
The tribe in honor would increase 
Unless her love should wane and cease, 

A love the tribe might trust. 

No other sorrow could entail. 
Could bring to all the tribal wail 
Of death, unless her love should fail, 

In this they all found life. 
In love she found her mission true, 
God's love for all she would pursue — 
From day to day His love renew, 

And shun the way of strife. 

Fair Caddolina, was her name, 
The name she gave a noble fame. 
From which great tribal honor came — 

It stood for love and peace. 
Fair Chakyuto, the Prairie Flower, 
That lives forever in an hour. 
The sweetest fragrance gave the power 

To cause all hate to cease. 

The striking beauty of her face, 
The magic spell of untaught grace 
That marked her of the Caddo race. 

For this and more was she ; 
And yet she seemed of all no part, 
To none appeared to give her heart; 
For her though Cupid held his dart. 

Her fancy e'er was free. 



26 CADDOLINA 

The tanaha and strange kaho 
Though different, alike bellow, 
In dark no one could ever know 

If land or water beast 
Were coming in the moonless night ; 
Yet somehow there's an oversight, 
For God doth give us inward light 

When danger is increased. 

Her childhood like a dream had passed, 
For danger that from beast or blast 
Had menaced her, had ne 'er harassed 

Her ever charmed life. 
Her days seemed numbered by the light, 
The shadows passed with every night. 
Or moonbeams lingered all in sight 

To charm away all strife. 

Her life was free from wicked guile 
And naught her heart could e 'er defile : 
Abhorring all that made life vile 

She lived and prayed for all. 
A crocodile that once was seen 
Approaching her with horrid mien, 
A youth struck dead with spear so keen, 

Her peril did forestall. 

"And now," said he, "your hand, your hand, 
The dearest hand in all the land. 
Oh, Love, you cannot understand 

The gift I pledge to you — 
My soul, my heart : My heart is whole, 
The climax of my hidden soul, 
The gift of heaven to console 

And guard your life so true. 



CADDOLINA 27 

My heart, my life, down at thy feet 
I lay; oh. Love, the gift is sweet 
Alone because without deceit 

'Tis thine, and thine alone. 
In all the world, in all the sky, 
To me there's nothing half so high 
For which I would so gladly die 

As you, my love, my own. 

She heard his words with deep concern, 
And felt her cheek more crimson burn, 
But yet to give a happy turn 

Denied all love for him. 
A jest may often prove love's test, 
And yet the truth is always best 
For love, which never knows a jest. 

And then 'tis ever grim. 

Somehow he felt his doom was sealed ; 
His brain gave way; he Staggered, reeled, 
All hope was gone ; his blood congealed 

As though he turned to stone. 
So, standing, from the bluff he fell; 
His form lay ghastly in the dell 
And ever after gave its spell. 

As Lover's Leap was known. 

The tragic end of life, the end 

Of love. No more the bow would bend ; 

No more the arrow's message send — 

Its mark to seek afar. 
She saw her error ; reeled and fled. 
The hand of fate had stricken dead 
The youth upon whose fated head 

Had set misfortune's star. 



28 CADDOLINA 

His silver voice was heard no more ; 
No more the angels, as before 
To hear him, hung about the door; 

His magic smile was gone ; 
His thrilling laugh no more was heard, 
The music of the mocking bird 
That dwelt upon his ev'ry word, 

The harp that love played on. 



In all the land her fame was known. 
On ev'ry hand her deeds were sown, 
The hand of God was in her own 

For good but not for ill. 
Both far and near like evening's star 
That seems so near, yet still is far, 
She was the star that ne'er would mar 

But did the Maker's will. 

Her love had made another world. 
The star of love in love unfurled 
In Caddoland forever whirled, 

Another sun she seemed. 
The life of all would sunless be 
If love were not eternity — 
As boundless as the greatest sea; 

By love are we redeemed. 



CADDOLINA 29 

For love is like the stars by day 

That shine though lost in sunlight's play, 

And darkness gives them brighter sway, 

So brilliant in the night. 
From day to day she grew in grace, 
The soul of beauty lit her face, 
No thought of evil left its trace 

To mar the soul's delight. 

She loved the flowers growing wild 
And tamed them like a loving child 
Until a bower undefiled 

Grew round her perfumed lodge. 
The goldenrod was all aglow 
In autumn still untouched by snow. 
And plumes were nodding to and fro 

Like plumed knights that dodge. 

Before her smile in mute dismay 
The boldest lover strode away, 
The nobler ones content to stay 

Love's story told betimes. 
Paternal love made life so fair 
Naught pleaded cause of lover rare 
Nor spoke his praise in song or prayer, 

In nature's woodland rhymes. 

Her hands the clever magic knew 
To twine the vines and roses too 
In clinging beauty as they grew 

About her bower rare; 
To twine them in fantastic form 
With taste that lent an added charm 
In sylvan dells where no alarm 

Could mar a scene so fair. 



30 CAD DO LI N A 

In wild i^rofusion flowers rare 
With fragrance stored the balmy air 
While honey bees without impair 

Drew sweets for wintry days. 
The nights though gladdened by the stars, 
Those eyes of fire that nothing mars, 
Were filled with music nothing bars. 

The whippoorwill's lone praise. 

The light of beauty in her eyes 
Reflected from the sunlit skies — 
The light that never fades or dies. 

But lives forevermore ; 
The sense of duty in her heart 
Was prompted by no selfish art, 
Nor pierced could be by Cupid's dart, 

Nor message that it bore. 

Angelic love for all the band 
That dwelt within that magic land 
She felt, and blessed on ev'ry hand 

In love and heart and soul ; 
She deemed each lover loved enough, 
Although a diamond in the rough, 
If this he shared without rebuff 

Within the tribe's control. 

But love is e'er unsatisfied 

If others should his love divide. 

Or share with all the tribe beside, 

For selfish love is fair. 
And so each lover sighed in vain 
Until there seemed a sighing train. 
Though all had lost, yet none could gain — 

No lucky swain was there. 



CADDO LI N A 31 



XI. 



The storm that breaks the mighty oak 
That stood a thousand years, then broke 
Beneath the gathered awful stroke — 

The age-long test of might; 
Resistless lightning striking blind, 
Predestined foe of humankind, 
A lesson is to ev'ry mind, 

A wonder and a blight. 

The Caddo tribe in search of peace 
That failed at last, another lease 
Of happiness that might increase 

With length of days and more, 
Had found another home indeed 
Where nature's hand had sown the seed 
That might enhance the golden meed 

Of peace as ne'er before. 

For ev'ry where as if at rest 

The land though new was doubly blest 

Because the object of their quest 

The end that all could see, 
The rain and sunshine. No turmoil 
In hiding seemed to curse the soil. 
The land would bloom with little toil. 

Fit home for people free. 



32 CAD DOLINA 

The noblest deeds in mem'ry dwell 
With all who feel their magic spell, 
Although they sound a nation's knell, 

The death of treasured hopes. 
A single battle oft may end 
A people's peace and then extend 
Its shadow like a pall to blend 

With death where mem'ry gropes. 



xn. 

The Seven Cities of Cibola, 

The mountain heights of Areola, 

A message weird from Matola, 

The mind had filled with dreams 
That grew to longings of the soul, 
Supplanting ev'ry other goal. 
Beyond all power to control. 

Though hope forever gleams. 

The great South Sea, so long unknown, 
Pacific though by storm clouds blown, 
Its broad expanse in silence lone— ' 

Majestic, useless, free. 
The Sunset Land, the land of sleep. 
The centuries with silent sweep 
Had passed with none to watch or weep 

Beside that silent sea. (9) 



CAD D O LI NA 33 

Retracing now their steps they pass 

Back eastward, for disease, alas! 

Had broken all their hopes like glass — 

Their hearts were sore oppressed. 
Their new Pacific home was cursed, 
Misfortune on their heads had burst. 
For pestilence had brought the worst — 

Their home no longer blest. 

A home they found beyond the crest, 
A province by its own peace blest, 
In peace again they hoped to rest, 

A peace extending far. 
Yet in that very land they found 
A foe sprang up as from the ground. 
Full armed and at a single bound 

Stood forth prepared for war. 

No calumet of peace they smoked, 
The war dance only they invoked ; 
Decrees of peace were all revoked — (10) 

The war god took command. 
The wigwams of the Caddo tribe. 
No pen their gloom can e'er describe 
Though time and wrong might circumscribe 

The numbers of the band. 

The frown of war shone everj^where 
And martial voices rent the air 
That filled the people with despair, 

To feed the battle's flame. 
No more came peace at any price, 
For war demanded sacrifice. 
No matter if 'twere born of vice. 

The price was paid the same. 



34 CADD O LI N A 



XIII. 

Before the battle on the plain, 
Below the hill a war-dance strain 
Began ; went round and round again — 

They turned, they yelled, they danced 
Forth, back, up and down, single file, 
In war paint shining all the while, 
With fiendish cry, demonic smile, 

They cantered, bantered, pranced. 

'Twas thus the battle hour came round, 
And thus an hour for prayer was found 
By waiting men whom fate had bound, 

Begirt by tribal hate. 
'Twas meet that Caddo men should pray, 
Appeal to heaven though at bay, 
Before they joined in mortal fray, 

The dire decree of fate. 

"Great Spirit, hear the Caddo's prayer, 
Thou Soul of Justice ever fair. 
Thy children seek Thy holy care. 

On Thee alone rely 
For succor in this battle hour; 
To Thee we look ; Thou art our tower 
Of strength, Thou art the power 

That canst the foe defy. 



CADDOLINA 35 

As when of old God's people prayed, 
Oppression 's arm was often stayed ; 
So now we seek Almighty aid, 

Though we should live or die. 
Teach us in all to be like Thee, 
As freeman worthy to be free, 
Ashamed to turn our backs or flee — 

To Thee alone we cry." (11) 

"The hill of Mars forsooth is ours," 
Said Chief Kaday, "and the powers 
Of evil can assail us there for hours 

With no avail to them. 
Then let us stand behind the wall. 
And there await the battle call 
To see our persecuters fall, 
'Tis honor's diadem. 

"This hill, Enego, flanked with earth 
A thousand moons before our birth — 
This hill is half the battle worth, 

And here we take our stand." 
Kaday, of stalwart frame, and eye 
Which like the eagle's, could defy 
The blazing sun that shone on high. 

Forth led his valiant band. 

Forsooth a mighty man was he, 
Beloved by all the tribe, and free ; 
For Caddolina made him see 

The way to nobler life. 
For womanhood ennobles man — 
It's been so since the world began 
Without exception to the plan; 

She's seldom blamed for strife. 



36 CADDOLINA 

The foe came crowding up the hill, 
Most eager blameless men to kill, 
And do the devil's wicked will 

On unoffending men; 
On peace-ennobled men of nerve 
Undaunted, who would never swerve 
Prom duty's call; who loved to serve 

Though never taught by pen. 

Nor rifle shot nor cannon ball 

Was heard to sound beyond the wall, 

But savage yells made duty's call 

To meet the savage foe. 
No modern warfare would they wage, 
Their victims in a helpless cage 
To gratify their cruel rage. 

And add but woe to woe. 

Along the rugged mountain brow 
The first grim contest opened now 
As boulders down its side would plough 

Among the wicked foe. 
The pond'rous rocks fell thick and fast, 
Like thunder-bolts from Jove's own blast, 
By willing hands well aimed and cast 

On fiends of war below. 

But foes were thicker far than rocks; 
The broken heads had thinned the flocks, 
Yet others still pressed on in blocks 

Where'er their comrades fell. 
In rear another way appeared, 
For there the grim embankment reared 
Its front, and here the foe were speared 

Beyond the power to tell. 



CADDO LI N A 37 

At length sheer numbers overcame 
Those brave defenders in the game, 
And tragedy of war, whose fame 

In marble is untold. 
Heroic men ! Until the end 
Gave all, death's messenger to send, 
With decimated foes to blend 

In death, the dross with gold. 

At bay they stood, undaunted men, 
Their refuge but a wretched den. 
The mountain crest a prison pen, 

Their hope the God of Might, 
A covenant with death to fall, 
Behind the frail protecting wall. 
The final test, the tribal call. 

And conflict for the right. 

With battle-axe, though rudely made. 
The Chief the hand of fate delayed ; 
For round him foemen dead were laid — 

A circle where he fell. 
His hand was forced to deal the blow; 
The world in sorrow needs to know. 
In self-defense, God wills it so 

To strike the fiends of hell. 



38 CADDO LIN A 



XIV. 

The sole survivor, tribesmen slain, 
When Caddolina faced the plain, 
Escape that way she saw was vain ; 

Behind the river flowed, 
A danger great, because the tide 
Was swollen like a sea, and wide 
The turgid waters thus defied 

The foe in savage mode. 

She quickly formed a purpose bold ; 
'Twas sooner carried out than told, 
For rushing where the waters rolled 

A slender birch canoe, 
At hand, she seized and wildly rowed, 
While little thought the foe bestowed 
On her, though silver moonbeams flowed 

Another flood as true. 

Adown the stream she rowed so fast 
She swept beyond the swiftest blast. 
Remembering the peril past 

She longed to reach the land 
Below, to dwell in peace again 
With friendly tribes beside the main, 
Beside the sea, though mem'ry vain 

Recalled her slaughtered band. 



CADDOLI NA 39 

Down, down she flew, nor halted more 
Until she reached the welcome shore 
That greeted her long years before 

In mem'ry's Summerland. 
Her peril o'er, in peace to dwell, 
In song and story she might tell 
The woe her heart had known too well, 

The fatal Caddo stand. 

She seemed to ride for death, not life, 
For pangs of war preferring strife 
Of angry waves so darkly rife 

With all their perils near. 
The moon had passed from East to West 
Full orbed ; the light of day she blest ; 
For rising o'er the river's crest 

The sun dispelled her fear. 



XV. 

She left behind the tragic scene. 
Her slaughtered tribe, a mem'ry keen, 
With wrong triumphant where had been 

The dream of lucky Stars. 
She faced the future ; God was near 
To dry away each bitter tear, 
And turn to love all thoughts of fear. 

The bloody feast of Mars. 



40 CAD DO LIN A 

"My hope," she sang, "my tribe is dead, 
The bride of fate by sorrow led 
My woe in pity may be read 

In sorrow bending low ; 
But truth is greater still than wrong, 
The smile of God's unwritten song 
Will never spare the wicked throng 

That dealt the wicked blow. 

Farewell, once happy home, farewell ; 
My heart's forlorn, I cannot tell 
How much I love each hill and dell 

That make thee dear to me. 
Farewell, oh, bright and sunny land, 
Thou home of freedom's loving band, 
Thy people's last and bloody stand, 

Who went to death for thee. 

Farewell, unhappy land, farewell, 

Thy glory was the magic spell 

For which thy children fought and fell; 

But now thy glory's past, 
For when they fell thy freedom died; 
No other stands against the tide 
Of battle. In the world so wide 

Who's left to face the blast?" 



CADDOLINA 41 



XVI. 

Amid the scenes of childhood days, 
Where happy mem'ry fondly stays, 
She felt the thrill of thankful praise ; 

The thought that fear no more 
Would come to her ; the minstrelsy 
Of nature's music near the sea, 
The birth of hope, the peace to be 

Beside the golden shore. 

But when she saw a greater war 
Was coming from the lands afar, 
Foretokened by a flaming star, 

She taught the people peace. 
The curse that war had brought she told 
In words that made her words seem bold 
In characters that shone like gold — 

Made love of peace increase. 

The arrow speeds beyond the hills, 
The eagle's cries the valley fills, 
The early frost the verdure kills, 

Renewed by nature's hand. 
The pathway through the wood leads on 
To larger views, a grander dawn, 
In purple light when night is gone 

The sunlight's feasts expand. 



42 CADD O LI NA 

As years rolled on another tribe, 
Whose deeds 'twere honor to inscribe, 
Adopted her, but to subscribe 

To naught did they require; 
For purified by every pang 
That death inflicts her praises sang 
And through the land they rang and rang 

From fame's eternal lyre. 



CADDOLINA 43 



NOTES 



1. "Linguistic evidence shows that maize was intro- 
duced into the United States from the tribes of Mexico, and 
from the Carib of the West Indies long before the appear- 
ance of ^Europeans, and indications of its cultivation are 
found ir nr.-ounds and in ancient Pueblo mines and cliff 
dwellings. La. Salle and other French explorers of the 
Mississippi valley found all the tribes they visited culti- 
vating maize. Corn was used in various ways by the na- 
tives in their ceremonies, and among some tribes the time 
of planting, ripening and harvesting was made the occas- 
ion of festivities." See Bulletin No. 30 issued by the Smith- 
sonian Institution, Part I, pages 790-1. 

2. Flights of migratory wild pigeons were famous until 
about 1S73, when the invention of breech-loading shotguns 
doomed them to destruction. They were bluish-gray above, 
breast reddif.h-brown, and much resembling the common 
dove. They moved northwest in spring and returned south 
in early autumn. I remember seeing one of these flights 
about 1861, which seemed almost an hour in passing. Au- 
dubon, the ornithologist, estimated that there were more 
than a billion in a flight that he witnessed, which he stated 
was nearly three days in passing. Their roosting places 
were very extensive, in one instance about forty miles 
long and several miles wide. When a flight rose after 
lighting the sound seemed almost equal to thunder. 

?.. Ponce de Leon was old when he led the expedition 
to Florida. Born in Spain about 1460, in 1493 he sailed 
with Columbus on his second trip to America; was Gov- 
ernor in Espanola, and later Porto Rico. He discovered 
the famous island of Bimini off the coast of Florida, In 
which island the Indians claimed was the Fountain of 
Youth, doubtless suggested by the "beauty of the women 
which was said to rekindle the fires of youth in the veins 
of age." }i6 later discovered Florida where he was at- 
tacked by Indians and wounded, resulting in his death in 
Cuba in 1521. 

i. The story of De Vaca's perilous journey is equal to 
that of Marco Polo to China in A. D. 1200. Cabeza de 
Vaca was with Narvaez who landed in Florida in 1528 with 
300 Spaniards in search of gold. Wasted by famine, dis- 



44 NOTES 



ease and savage assaults and shipwrecked in the Gulf of 
Mexico, only De Vaca and three others were left, "who for 
eight years roamed over Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico 
and Arizona, across rivers, plains and deserts, beset by 
wild beasts and men," ever led on by reports of a colony 
of Spaniards to the southwest, until at last in 1536 the mis- 
erable wanderers, "first to make the transcontinental trip 
in Northern latitudes," reached the Gulf of California where 
they met some of their fellow countrymen, who bore them 
in triumph to the City of Mexico as the guests of the newly 
acquired Spanish province. See his own account in G^eat 
Epochs of American History, Vol. 1, page 123. 

5. Hernando de Soto's name is inseparable from Amer- 
ican history. Born in Spain in 1500, before he discovered 
the Mississippi he was in Panama and Nicaragua, was with 
Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, from which he returned 
rich to Spain in 1537, and was made Governor of Cuba and 
Florida, with orders to explore and settle the country. The 
leader of 620 chosen men, as audacious "as ever trod the 
shores of the New World, he startled the forest with un- 
wonted greeting," and declared that the enterprise was un- 
dertaken for God alone. His route has been approximately 
ascertained as follows: He made a circuit northward from 
Tampa, Florida, as far as South Carolina, thence west- 
ward into Alabama, thence northward again and westward 
to the Mississippi, which he is believed to have crossed at 
Chickasaw Bluffs in May, 1541, and went northward into 
Missouri; thence turning southward he reached the junc- 
tion of the Red River and Mississippi, where he died of 
malarial fever, and was buried in the Mississippi. Of his 
men 250 perished from disease or in combats with Indians. 
One of his men said, "De Soto was a stern man of few 
words. His will was law to his followers, and through 
disappointment he was sustained by stubborn pride." See 
Parkham's account in Great Epochs of American History, 
Vol. 1, page 147. De Soto's vindication of Atahuallapa, the 
last Inca of Peru, who had been basely put to death by 
Pizarro while a prisoner, shows the humane side of De 
Soto's character. See Prescott's History of Pizarro, Chap. 3. 

6. La Salle settled in Canada about 1669, whence he 
sought to reach China by way of the Ohio River, supposing 
from reports of the Indians this river to flow into the 
Pacific or South Sea. But when it became evident that the 
Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico he conceived a 
vast prospect for extending the French power into the 
lower Mississippi valley, and thence attacking Mexico. In 
1684 La Salle had returned to France, and was sent out 
with an expedition against the Spanish in Northern Mex- 
ico; but it was unsuccessful. After the loss of a ship he 
landed at Espiritu Santa Bay in Texas, where he built a 



NOTES 



45 



fort, whence for two years he made excursions by land 
in Texas, but his followers becoming discontented and 
mutinous, he was absassinated by them near the Tririity 
River in 1687. 

7. The preceding sixteen lines were written before the 
sinking of the Lusitania, and other outrages at the hands 
of the Kaiser's emissaries, forced the American people to 
enter the World War in self defense, and the following sen- 
timents express my present views. 

8. The works of the Moundbuilders are worthy to be 
classed among the Seven Wonders of the world, and may 
justly be so considered after so many of them have been 
destroyed at the behest of the real or fancied requirements 
of civilization. In a general way these Mounds were scat- 
tered from St. Paul to New Orleans, and from St. Louis to 
Pittsburgh. It is estimated that there were ten thousand 
of them in Ohio alone, among them being the famous Ser- 
pent Mound. Six miles east of St. Louis the great Cahokia 
Mound challenges the wonder of all beholders. It is con- 
ceded that the mounds were constructed without iron tools 
or domestic animals. It was foi'merly assumed that they 
were constructed by a distinct race or people, but the 
more recent theory is that many of them were constructed 
by the Cherokees and some of the other tribes of Indians. 
See Bulletin 30, Part 1, page 949. 

9. The Seven Cities of Cibola were said to be located 
in Northern Arizona, the celebrated ruins of which remain. 
The Pacific Ocean was vaguely known to the Aztecs and 
western tribes as the South Sea, or strait, but they had 
no knowledge of its extent. 

10. In 1844 an Indian council was held at Wash- 
ington. Texas. President Sam Houston, a friend of 
the Indians, visited them with his cabinet. One of their 
marks of respect to Gen. Houston was to give a dance, 
which an observer thus described: "Indian dances are dif- 
ficult to describe. The men and women do not dance to- 
gether like white people, but the men formed in a circle 
and danced to the right in a rude forward manner. After 
they were through they left the ring and the women took 
their places, but did not dance in a forward manner. They 
advanced in a circle." Border Wars of Texas. Page 378. 

11. Prayer was common with the Indians, and this ap. 
peal to Deity was quite natural under the circumstances. 
See Bulletin No. 30, Vol. 2, page 303. 



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